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Finally: Friday night games return to radio

• After at least a five-year hiatus, city high school football teams' games will once again be broadcast on the radio.

Colin Chmielewski

ALBANY — During recent fall Friday nights, there has been something missing from Albany radio: city high school football.

For as many as five years, fans of Monroe, Dougherty, Albany and Westover have either had to go to the game or they were in the dark about how their teams fared.

Thanks to a couple of motivated radio people — and a deal with Dougherty County Schools — that “blackout” now is over.

Cumulus Radio has partnered with Tag Sports to broadcast 10 Friday night games involving the four Dougherty County schools. The broadcasts will be a “Game-of-the-Week” format, and likely will feature whichever school is playing at Hugh Mills Stadium that Friday night.

“It’s exciting,” Dougherty County athletic director Johnny Seabrooks said. “In the past, we’ve worked on some deals that we thought would work, but I think it’s going to be exciting for the fans.”

The city games will air on 105.5 WZBN-FM beginning with Albany hosting Lanier on Aug. 31. Cumulus’ package also includes Deerfield-Windsor’s games, which will be broadcast on 107.7 WEGC-FM, a high school recap show (which will air on 1450 AM and Q102.1 FM) and a “Monday Morning Quarterback” show on 1590 AM.

Tag Sports, which has been producing Lee County’s games for the past couple seasons, decided to step forward with a plan this spring after realizing there was a market for high school football in Albany.

“I think it’s ridiculous that it hadn’t been done before,” Tag Sports owner Tracy Goode said. “After a meeting we said, ‘We need to attempt to duplicate or replicate what we’ve done for Lee County for Albany.’ ”

While Goode and his partners will continue to broadcast Lee County on 106.5 FM — separate from Cumulus — they approached new general manager Jay Wachs with their idea. Goode said Wachs, who took over at Cumulus on March 12, was ecstatic about the idea from the very beginning.

“In every market I’ve every worked in, I’ve made a commitment to community events,” said Wachs, who worked in Greenville, S.C. prior to Albany. “And there is no bigger community event than high school sports in a town like Albany, Georgia.”

Once Goode confirmed Wachs’ interest, he went to Seabrooks and worked on purchasing the rights to the city schools’ games. Seabrooks said Wednesday that he had signed a tentative contract with Goode, but wasn’t sure which or how many games would be aired. But both Wachs and Goode confirmed that the deal is done and 10 Friday night games will be aired this season.

Goode admitted that he had considered making Thursday and Saturday games at Hugh Mills part of the package, but that he “wants to ease into it” this season.

Seabrooks singled out Goode’s work as the reason football will once again grace the city airwaves.

“There’s a lot of factors (why it didn’t work in the past),” he said. “When Tracy came in, he had a better plan than we had in the past, and he sort of took it and ran with it. He did a great job with it.”

Goode and Wachs said the response in the community since the deal has been exceptional. The unavailability of city games in recent years has been a hotly debated issue, but there is little doubt that this package will placate area football fans.

Monroe coach Charles Truitt, who is entering his fourth season with the Tornadoes, was happy to get the news Wednesday.

“I’m glad for that because a lot of those people that maybe don’t have an opportunity to get to the stadium or to the game, will have a chance to get results,” said Truitt, who added that Monroe has not been on the radio during his tenure. “I’m glad that happened.”

Westover coach Jeff Caldwell also said that the Patriots haven’t been on the air in his previous four seasons. Caldwell would like to see road games broadcast, but understands the situation.

“With four schools, it’s hard to be tied down to one situation,” Caldwell said. “Certainly, it’s a plus. It will bring a little bit more to the community as far as knowledge of what’s going on Friday nights.”

And Caldwell could get his wish if Westover can make the playoffs. Goode said that they plan to have radio teams following any of the four city schools should they make a postseason run. If football goes well, Goode and Tag Sports also hope to air basketball games this winter.

If the initial buzz is any indication, there should be plenty of people tuning in.

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